Mahesh Kumar tried to be a whistleblower

Senior railway official Mahesh Kumar, now in judicial custody on corruption charges, tried to throw the CBI off the scent some months ago by approaching the agency about financial wrongdoing in the railways, and in the process invited trouble for himself.

It was on Kumar’s information that the CBI started keeping a watch on the railways and discovered that Kumar himself was allegedly involved in corrupt practices and was trying to become member (electrical), Railway Board, through wrong means.

CBI sources said Kumar had approached the agency’s office in New Delhi around five months ago when he was general manager, Western Railways, in Mumbai. “He had also written a letter to the CBI to this extent,” said a CBI official, requesting anonymity. In the process of investigation, the CBI came in contact with a senior railway official who told the agency about Kumar’s alleged venality.

CBI probes leak to identify moleNew Delhi: The CBI suspects that an agency official alerted the family of suspended railway board member Mahesh Kumar, about his arrest at Mumbai and impending searches at his residence in the city on May 3. CBI has begun an internal probe, which will also verify if someone had intimated the family of Vijay Singla about the impending searches at his Chandigarh residence the same day. HTC